Fundrais­ing bar hop at CHHIPS Trot ’N Brew

On Satur­day in the Heights area of Hazleton, dozens of peo­ple turned up for the 35th an­nual CHHIPS Trot ’N Brew fundraiser in mem­ory of Rocco Colan­gelo.

Run­ners and walkers alike strolled through the streets from bar to bar for 1.5 miles to raise money for this event.

Each per­son who par­tic­i­pated in the race stopped at each par­tic­i­pat­ing bar — Bunkers, The Bat­tered Mug and Joyce and Bill’s — bought a 5-ounce glass of beer or soda for 25 cents.

CHHIPS, the Com­mit­tee to Help Hand­i­capped In­fants and Par­ents Suc­ceed, is a lo­cal non­profit or­ga­ni­za­tion that ac­quires funds for in­fant stim­u­la­tion pro­grams, which helps in­fants that have a dis­abling con­di­tion gain their full po­ten­tial.

Trot ’N Brew is one of the ma­jor fundrais­ers CHHIPS has held over the years.

In the last 15 to 20 years the event has raised $80,000 to $100,000 for CHHIPS, ac­cord­ing to or­ga­niz­ers. Satur­day’s event was ex­pected to raise more than $5,000.

The num­ber of par­tic­i­pants has var­ied over the years, usu­ally from 250 to 350 peo­ple. The high­est num­ber was about 550 peo­ple.

FRANK BARR / CON­TRIBUT­ING PHO­TOG­RA­PHER

Race par­tic­i­pants start run­ning at Bunkers for the CHHIPS Trot ’N Brew on Satur­day in Hazleton.